Nepal Trafficking in Girls With Special Reference to Prostitution: A ...

A Rapid Assessment
Executive Summary tion consists of both quantitative and qualitative data
that has been generated through interviews and field
Background
The exploitative practice of child labour has come
to be recognized as a major socio-economic problem.
Child labour jeopardizes children’s potential to
become productive adults, robbing them of their
health, their education and their prospects for a better
future. It is an affront to the principles of social justice,
child rights and to the protection of human rights.
Children are among the most neglected, abused and
exploited segments of the population, exposed to such
worst forms of labour as trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The need to restrict and eradicate such intolerable
forms of child labour has become an essential
element of a national development strategy to achieve
sustainable growth and protect human rights. His
Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMG/N) has repeatedly
expressed its commitment to eliminating the
worst forms of child labour, and the government is
currently in the process of ratifying the new ILO Convention
on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No. 182.
This Rapid Assessment aims to shed new light
on the plight and lives of Nepalese girls trafficked
within their country or across the border to India, for
sexual exploitation. The findings of this study will
help complete the vast gaps in knowledge and information
on this topic, and thus provide invaluable background
to future action programmes aimed at eliminating
this worst form of child labour. More specifically,
the study focuses on uncovering the causes,
characteristics, magnitude and consequences of these
children and their involvement in this hidden worst
form, and to offer recommendations based on these
findings.
This study is based on the Rapid Assessment
(RA) methodology developed by the International
Labour Organization/ International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC) and the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Rapid
Assessment combines both quantitative and qualitative
data gathering tools, and is aimed at obtaining indepth
knowledge of a given phenomenon within only
three months. Secondary information has been obtained
from available sources such as reports, newspaper
articles, and seminar papers. Primary informa-
surveys, with an emphasis on qualitative data that may
shed light on the often hidden aspects of trafficking
for sexual exploitation.
The populations targeted for investigation were
vulnerable girls, and girls and women who had been
trafficked for sexual exploitation, as well as girls engaged
in prostitution in Nepal and trafficked girls living
in rehabilitation centres or who have been reintegrated
into their families, communities, and/or society,
referred to as returnees.
The researchers discovered that the world of trafficking
is characterized by fear and by vested political
and economic interests. The findings below illustrate
this point repeatedly.
Who is being trafficked?
The study findings estimate that 12,000 children
are trafficked every year from Nepal. The local history
implies that trafficking has long been associated
with poverty, social exclusion, and ignorance, as well
as with the practice of slavery and the bonded labour
system. Trafficking crosses many caste/ethnic groups
of Nepal, but most at risk are members of the hill ethnic
group and lower castes. Trafficking of girls seldom
takes place before the onset of puberty, about
age thirteen; about one quarter of the study sample
was trafficked when under the age of 14, and more
than half were under 16.
How are they being trafficked?
The complex process of trafficking can be explained
by two models (as developed by John
Fredericks), “hard” and “soft.” The former is conducted
through force and false promises. It spreads
from one district to another and has largely shifted
from rural to urban areas.
The distinction between soft and hard trafficking refers
to coercion and/or complicity of members of a nuclear
family and/or extended family in the entry of a person into
forced or under-aged prostitution. It does not refer to pattern
of movement or to roles played. In soft trafficking, nuclear
and/or extended family members can play roles besides
‘seller,’ including transporter and purchaser (if the person is
sent to work in a family-owned establishment).
1